Out of office, Jeb Bush retains major influence on education policy

June 3, 2012|By Kathleen Haughney, Tallahassee Bureau

TALLAHASSEE — Former Gov. Jeb Bush is six years out of office, but his influence over the state's education policies may be greater than ever.

The Foundation for Florida's Future — a million-dollar educational incubator Bush founded in 1994 that's led by his former deputy chief of staff — is widely considered the single most influential voice over the state's educational policy, far surpassing either teachers or parents.

And the issues that it focuses on — creating more charter and virtual schools; ending tenure and instituting merit pay for schoolteachers; strengthening the state's FCAT and other standardized "accountability" tests — have surged to the top of the agenda espoused by the Legislature and Gov. Rick Scott. Opposition from teachers' unions and some parents has been drowned out or ignored.

"The legislative leadership of the past couple of years both with the speaker and president and the education chairs have been really reform-minded," said Patricia Levesque, head of the Foundation for Florida's Future. "So we really see our role as supporting the agenda they want to accomplish."

Consider just a few examples of what the Foundation has accomplished:

•One year after then-Gov. Charlie Crist vetoed the bill, merit pay for teachers — including elimination of tenure for all newly hired instructors — easily passed the Legislature with the backing of Scott. It topped the Foundation's bill list.

•An internal copy of Scott's legislative agenda for the 2012 session said the foundation would "take the lead" on a controversial school-voucher initiative. The so-called "Education Savings Account" would have seen the state pay part of its per-pupil expenditure direct to parents to spend on anything from private-school tuition to textbooks or curriculum for a home-schooling program. Ultimately, it went nowhere.

When only 27 percent of the state's fourth-graders earned an acceptable score on FCAT writing last month, Levesque's staff helped lead strategy sessions with the Department of Education on how to respond. They even offered the department the help of a public-relations company that she worked with through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

•While public-school funding has been cut — it peaked at $7,126 per student in 2007-08 and will be at $6,375 for the next year — programs such as the corporate-income-tax scholarship program have expanded. Lawmakers this year raised the cap on the program — established while Bush was governor — from $140 million to $229 million, with the option for further expansion.

Finally, though this year's budget had no construction money for public schools, it included $55 million in construction dollars for charter schools. Bush has been a strong proponent of school choice, including charter schools.

"He's got his finger in it," said Sen. John Thrasher, R-St. Augustine, the original sponsor of the merit-pay bill and a former chair of the Republican Party. "There's no doubt about it. He's passionate about it."

Since Bush created the foundation in 1994, the group has developed ties with conservative think tanks such as the James Madison Institute and the Goldwater Institute and become a nationally known voice for school choice. It is run by a board packed with people better known for their political clout than their careers in education: former House Speaker Allan Bense, former Lt. Gov. Toni Jennings and GOP fundraiser Zachariah Zachariah.

Sen. David Simmons, R-Altamonte Springs, chair of the Senate Education Appropriations Subcommittee, said he frequently solicits the foundation's — and Bush's — views on education issues.

"We don't always agree," Simmons said. But he noted that this past spring when he wanted to extend the school day for struggling elementary schools, Bush backed the idea if the time could be spent on extra reading instruction. That provision became a part of the final budget deal, and Simmons ultimately used Bush's name on the floor when he explained it to his Senate colleagues before a vote.

"We were reading from the same page, and it was excellent to join forces," Simmons said.

Though Bush's name is often dropped, he's rarely in Tallahassee. Instead, he relies on Levesque, who was his deputy chief of staff in the Governor's Office, as his messenger and top lobbyist.

She monitors almost every education-committee meeting during the legislative session; she's a regular presence on panel discussions about education; and she often works with education groups in other states who hope to mimic some of Florida's education policies.

And with the help of business groups such as the Florida Chamber of Commerce, she rarely loses.